A little overdue, but after a well deserved rest (at least I think so), here goes our recount of the Bytown Bookshop’s five days in Montreal for Anticipation – The 67th World Sci-fi Convention.

First and foremost I have to give my thanks to Andrew Cornell of Cornell Booksellers (with whom we shared a booth) for handling all of the registration and logistics for the Con and to his family for helping out at the booth throughout the show and for trucking my books there and back.  Andrew’s account of the show can be read on the Cornell Bookseller Blog.

I have to admit, it was probably the smoothest set up I’ve ever done for a show with everything arriving with perfect timing and four sets of hands furiously shelving material early Thursday morning.  Here is a quick shot of our proudly displayed wares before the floor opened.  We had an excellent spot and the great benefit of being one of the only secondhand booksellers in the room.

The show kicked off at a good pace with a number of convention goers cruising through as well as a number of authors including George RR Martin, Robert Sawyer and P.C. Hodgell (who was kind enough to stop by my booth and chat for a minute while signing our copy of Dark of the Moon).   The boxes of Ace doubles and vintage Sci-fi digests sold like hotcakes withmany people coming fully prepared with printed want lists to fill in their various collections.  A few of our higher end pieces, notably our 1st edition of Ender’s Game and fine press books, drew attention.  And of course, Andrew’s collection of Arkham House books and classic firsts always draws an avid crowd.

One caveat, unfortunately my camera was on the wrong setting (unbeknownst to me), so pictures will therefore be scarce or nabbed from elsewhere on the net (with credit given where due of course).

The one session I was able to take in on the Thursday was The History of Tor which had the man himself, Tom Doherty, on the panel witha number of top editors in the field including 2009 Hugo winner David Hartwell.  It was an excellent overview of the publisher with a number of great anecdotes about the early years as the company moulded itself  into the successful imprint it is today.  The number one lesson for aspiring publishers and editors in the crowd was to love your job completely and build a culture around that passion.  Tor has posted two clips of the panel’s discussion on their website for your viewing pleasure.

Back on the Dealer’s floor I spent most of the afternoon chatting with collectors, authors and other literary enthusiasts while selling the odd handful of books here and there.  To top the day off, we sold our signed copy of Asimov’s I Robot within the first couple of hours which put a big smile on my face.

Between setting up the booth, getting my feet wet at the Con and running the booth until 7pm, I was admittedly pooped from the long day and decided to skip the evening sessions to retire early and conserve energy for the days ahead.

Day 2 of Anticipation to come shortly.